I picked up a wasp with my fingers and

[NJCher]

didn't mean to. Didn't even know that's what I was picking up.

I was gardening and felt something on my neck. I reached to the back of my neck and picked off whatever. I was very preoccupied and not really thinking about it.

When I put the "whatever" down and saw it was a black wasp and he walked off without stinging me, I was shocked!

Never heard of such a thing. I thought stinging for wasps was instinctive.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. I think they try to keep their stinger if possible.

Lucky you. I got stung last year on the forearm last year right outside the front door.

Those things hurt.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. Wasps don't lose their stinger when they sting. It's smooth, not

barbed like a bee. They can sting repeatedly.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Fascinating.

I know nothing about wasps, but your story makes me think stinging isn't that instinctive.

Thank you for posting.

[Croney]

3. I guess that's worse than what I took off myself today.

A tick, trying to embed on my lower abdomen. Dog must have brought it in. You must have grabbed the wasp just right!

[Freddie]

8. I pulled a tick off the back of my neck today

Still grossed out. Probably came from my grandcat who was on my lap. I wish they wouldn’t let her out but once they get a taste of the outdoors they like it too much.

[leftieNanner]

4. Waspy knew

That you had to cook those delicious Italian sausages for dinner tonight and didn't want to injure your chef's fingers!

(I read your What's for Dinner post.)

[woodsprite]

5. You did much better than me when I was a kid

I would catch honeybees when they landed on clover because I thought they looked fuzzy and cute. Apparently I tried to kiss one after my mom told me to leave them alone.

[NJCher]

6. --

[Mr.Bill]

7. I'm 67 years old

and I have never been stung by a bee or a wasp in my life. Lucky, I guess.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. They're all out there

Big orange bees, giant European hornets, black hornets, some kind of black shiny hornet bees with white diamonds on their backs, super giant hornet moth (which is harmless but will scare the bee-Jesus out of you). And I get snakes but that's subject for another thread.

[Kali]

11. wasps may or may not sting

I have grabbed them accidentally many times sometimes they sting sometimes not, I have even purposely let them rescue themselves from the pool by crawling on my hand. would never do that with a bee. bees are stupid and ungrateful.

[Botany]

12. Wasps are beneficial, they are pollinators, they control garden "pests," they almost never...

... sting humans because the wasps like the one you touched is most likely a female and the important
use in "the wasp world" of its stinger is not to sting other critters (except if you were squeezing it in your
hands or were trying to eat a live one and then they would sting you) but to paralyze other bugs, caterpillars,
and or spiders at which they deposit the paralyzed critter into its nest which already has a fertilized egg
in it as a food source for its next generation. Using up its stinger on you to that wasp would be a waste.




Is this the vespid in question?

[Mariana]

14. Some kind of wasps are pollinating my pepper plants right now.

They're doing a great job, too - lots of baby peppers on the plants. No idea what species, but these wasps are pretty small.

[NJCher]

16. wasp color

Hey, Botany, thanks for the response. I just saw this when I saw new posts on this thread.

It appears we have many circumstances when wasps don't sting, unbeknownst to me. Thanks to all the posters who responded with information.

It has been so long now that I can't recall if it was pure black or had some black and white to it. I think the latter, but wouldn't swear to it.

[Botany]

17. I plant native plants and it is amazing how close you can

get to bees and wasps and how little they want to sting you.

Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home & Nature's Best Hope are very good books and the Xercis Society is good too. We need all them little crtters.

[NJCher]

18. with you 100% on that

I just finished Deer Resistant Plants of the Northeast (Clauson) which tells of plants that you put in your front yard and that deer don't want to eat.

I'm getting native plants into the school gardens I manage, too. I love seeing the place full of bees and butterflies--and wasps, too.

Thanks for those suggestions: I am going to check to see if they're available at my public library.

[Botany]

19. Any questions let me know

You might want to see if you can make the school gardens into Doug Tallamy's backyard national
park project.

[Mariana]

13. Some species are more eager to sting than others.

Seems like the most aggressive ones have the most painful stings.

[Lars39]

15. Only females sting iirc

My grandpa used to freak my grandma out by mashing them by hand. He could tell the difference.